Cape Breton fiddling is a regional

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

style which falls within the Celtic music idiom. Cape Breton Island's fiddle music was brought to North America by Scottish immigrants during the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulte ...

. These Scottish immigrants were primarily from

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

-speaking regions in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

and the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

. Although fiddling has changed considerably since this time in Scotland, it is widely held that the tradition of Scottish fiddle music has been better preserved in Cape Breton. Dance styles associated with the music are Cape Breton

step dancing Step(s) or STEP may refer to: Common meanings * Steps, making a staircase * Walking * Dance move * Military step, or march ** Marching Arts Films and television * ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong * ''Step'' (film), US, 2017 Literature * ' ...

, Cape Breton

square dancing A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances contain elements from numerous traditional dances and were first documente ...

(

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...

style and

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

style), and

highland dancing Highland dance or Highland dancing ( gd, dannsa Gàidhealach) is a style of competitive dancing developed in the Scottish Highlands in the 19th and 20th centuries, in the context of competitions at public events such as the Highland games. It ...

. In 2005, as a tribute to the area's

traditional music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, the construction of a tourism center and the world's largest fiddle and bow was completed on the waterfront in

Sydney, Nova Scotia Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolv ...

Playing style

Cape Breton playing is highly accented, characterized by driven up-bowing. The tunes of other music origins (Irish,

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

French-Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fr ...

, ''etc''.) sound quite different when performed by Cape Breton players. The strong downbeat pulse is driven by the fiddler's heel into the floor. The pattern tends to be heel-and-toe on reels, the heel on strathspeys. Cape Breton fiddle music is strongly influenced by the intonations of the Scots-Gaelic language, especially Puirt a Beul (mouth music) and strathspeys. The ornaments are adapted from those used on the

Great Highland bagpipe The Great Highland bagpipe ( gd, a' phìob mhòr "the great pipe") is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland, and the Scottish analogue to the Great Irish Warpipes. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British milit ...

. The ornamentation (cuts aka. trebles, drones and doubling) brings out the strong feeling of Cape Breton fiddle. A century ago the violin and

pump organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

were the common instruments; the latter has been supplanted by

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Repertoire

The types of tunes commonly associated with Cape Breton fiddling are

jigs The jig ( ga, port, gd, port-cruinn) is a form of lively folk dance in compound metre, as well as the accompanying dance tune. It is most associated with Irish music and dance. It first gained popularity in 16th-century Ireland and parts of ...

reels A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...

, strathspeys, clogs (

hornpipe The hornpipe is any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England with Hugh Aston's Hornepype of 1522 and others r ...

s), and slow airs. Many of the tunes associated with Cape Breton fiddle music are also commonly performed on other instruments, especially

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

. It is not unheard of for the music to be performed on

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

tin whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

. Modern Cape Breton players draw on a large body of music, from the Scottish and Irish traditions, and from modern compositions. Several older books of tune collections have been particularly popular sources: *Fraser, Simon (1874), ''Simon Fraser Collection'' *MacDonald, Keith Norman (1887), ''The Skye Collection'' *MacQuarrie, Gordan F. (1940), ''The Cape Breton Collection'' * O'Neill, Francis (1903), ''O'Neill's Music Of Ireland'' *Robertson, James Stewart (1884), ''The Athole Collection'' *Skinner, James Scott, ''The Scottish Violinist'' *Skinner, James Scott, ''The Harp and Claymore'' A number of recent publications also document a substantial amount of the modern Cape Breton repertoire: *Beaton, Kinnon (2000), ''The Beaton Collection'' (compositions of Kinnon, Donald Angus, and Andrea Beaton) *Cameron, John Donald (2000), ''The Heather Hill Collection'' (compositions of Dan R. MacDonald) *Cameron, John Donald (1994), ''The Trip To Windsor Collection'' (compositions of Dan R. MacDonald, volume 2) *Cranford, Paul (2007), ''The Cape Breton Fiddlers Collection'' *Cranford, Paul (1997), ''Winston Fitzgerald: A Collection of Fiddle Tunes'' *Dunlay, Kate, and David Greenberg (1996), ''The Dungreen Collection - Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton'' *Holland, Jerry (1988, several revised editions), ''Jerry Holland's Collection of Fiddle Tunes'' *Holland, Jerry (2000), ''Jerry Holland: The Second Collection'' *MacEachern, Dan Hugh (1975), ''MacEachern's Collection'' *Ruckert, George (2009), ''John Campbell: A Cape Breton Legacy'' *Stubbert, Brenda (1994), ''Brenda Stubbert's Collection of Fiddle Tunes'' *Stubbert, Brenda (2007), ''Brenda Stubbert: The Second Collection''

References

External links

Kimberley Fraser's Fiddle Blog
Cape Breton Fiddler Kimberley Fraser discusses issues relevant to Cape Breton fiddle music. {{authority control 19th-century music genres 20th-century music genres 21st-century music genres Canadian Celtic music Canadian Gaelic Cape Breton Island Celtic music Irish styles of music Nova Scotia music Scottish styles of music Violins * Folk music genres

Playing style

Repertoire

See also

References

Further reading

External links